I know you’ve heard this from me before. It’s my annual reminder. :)
It’s a season when we’re encouraged to give to worthy charities.
It’s a time we remember to be more charitable in our attitudes because holidays bring up so many hard memories.
This season many people read, watch the play, or watch a movie version of one of my favorite stories ever, A Christmas Carol, which focuses on Ebenezer Scrooge’s change of heart to becoming one of the most charitable men in the world.
So today I’m making a stand against charity.
OK, maybe not a stand against charity. I’m making a stand for us to move from CHARITY to SOLIDARITY.
So often, charity focuses on what the giver has decided the receiver needs.
Solidarity instead invites people with financial resources to show up with humility and let people with the experience actually shape the project and name what’s needed.
Often charity treats people without financial resources as if all they are is their needs.
Solidarity knows that people without financial resources have a million other resources, gifts, and wisdom that get too often overlooked.
And finally, charity makes the giver the hero.
Solidarity recognizes that all of us together are the superhero movement we need.
In fact, if you read A Christmas Carol, you’ll discover that Dickens was focused on creating a society that honored all people’s gifts and allowed children to be children, not simply encouraging individual charity. In the wake of his book, child labor laws were strengthened, a real act of solidarity shaped by his experience with children forced to work.
This shift is a big part of my consulting, but it’s also a big part of how I try to live my life.
So this season, I hope you find ways to invest in organizations led by people directly impacted by injustice, and that you may find ways to show up in supportive and learning ways with those organizations. And if you are already part of one of those types of organizations, thanks for showing all of us how to release our charity practices and replace them with practices of solidarity.
with gratitude,
Sandhya
PS—Feel free to share this with anyone you think would find it helpful!